Zach Strief Debuts As Saints Radio Announcer – How’d He Do? [Video]

In the past few years, football fans in Louisiana have had to adjust. No, not to different coaches or schemes or really ugly Thursday night uniforms. We've had to adjust to how we hear our teams on the radio. While the Ragin' Cajun Radio Network is rock solid with Jay, long pause, no wait, even more, Walker, LSU fans and now Saints fans have had to grow accustomed to a new voice from the booth.

Jim Hawthorne was only the voice of everything LSU from 1979 to 2016 when he retired. Jim Henderson was only the voice of the pigs can fly New Orleans Saints from 1978 until last season. These guys were legends and to be the guy taking over those spots has got to be a tough path to take.

For LSU, Chris Blair climbed into the seat made so famous by Hawthorne and has done a very nice job bringing the story of Tiger athletics into our homes and cars.

For the Saints, history was made last night when the franchise debuted the voice of Zach Strief behind the microphone that Jim Henderson had used to speak to a generation of Saints fans. No, Zach wasn't Jim Henderson. It would be wrong for us to expect him to be.

For his first time under the lights with "live bullets" flying around him, I thought Zach Strief did an admirable job. Calling play by play in sports is a heck of a lot harder than these guys make it sound. I think Zach and analyst Deuce McAlister will evolve into a broadcast team that will be one of the best in professional football.

It takes time. Not only time for the broadcast team to jell but for our ears to allow a new voice to tell us the stories of the teams we love to follow. Of course, if the Saints win, then Strief will have no issues with how he calls the game. It's amazing just how bad the announcers can be though when your team is on a losing streak. That's why no one knows the name of the broadcast crew in Cleveland.